maternity leave rights

Hi,

I’ve been working for my current employer for 8 months and I’ve got my first baby on the way in October. I was wondering if I qualify for maternity pay at work. What are my maternity leave rights?

Thanks for your help.

There is a thread HERE that may help?

By the time your baby is due in October, will you have completed 12 months continusous service? Is so, it is likely you will be entitled to maternity leave.

In terms of maternity pay, there is no maternity pay provision in Australia as such, it veries between employer to employer. Under current legislation, employers are not obligated to pay you anything at all whilst you are on maternity leave.

As always, it is best to check with your employer. Do you have a copy of your original contract of employment? Usually maternity leave provisons are detailed within that.

Hello Jasmina,

Actually yes, you do. My baby is also due soon and I’ve been searching the Internet to get the answers to similar questions. According to a UK website SMP – Statutory Maternity Pay is available to any pregnant woman who has been with the same employer for at least 26 weeks. This is for the UK only.

Hope that helps.
Good luck.

just be careful with that one Rosalinda - it's a UK website - Australian maternity pay is different...

Rosalinda,

I have removed the link from your post for a couple of reasons. Here at Bellybelly we do not permit links to external sites, and also, the site you linked to was referring to SMP which is a UK pay provision, so is not applicable here in Australia.

Jasmina, I am not sure where you are located? The information provided here is all Austalian based...........

hi jasmina - if you are in australia (??) then I think if you have been with your employers for 12 months on your EDD you are entitled to up to 12 months LEAVE (ie they must hold a job at the same level for you). Regarding PAY I think this is up to the employer, we do not have any legislated paid maternity provisions in Australia.